Across the street most mornings

the field’s far patch looks shorn

The light has a brilliant edge

that evens across the grass

But it’s not cut, really

This morning though the whole of it

is brown with billets and I remember

I lost you

I took the blade of my crazy

and cut us down

Now the birds come for the confused insects

They eat the field           They fly away

Martha Serpas is the author of three collections of poetry: Côte Blanche (New Issues), The Dirty Side of the Storm (W.W. Norton), and 2015’s, The Diener (LSU). Her poetry has appeared in The New Yorker, The Nation, Southwest Review, and elsewhere. Active in efforts to restore Louisiana’s wetlands, she co-produced Veins in the Gulf, a documentary about coastal erosion. She teaches at the University of Houston and serves as a hospital trauma chaplain.